Extra Crispy Oven Baked French Fries

Crispy edges, soft centers; extra-crispy French fries baked not fried – so you can feel good about eating them!

When it comes to French fries, the single most important thing is the crispiness factor. We all know what typically makes the fries so crispy is the fact that they take a nice long, deep swim in a huge vat of oil. However, I am not a fan of that method. Why? Because….

1. Our version, which uses the oven is super simple and these fries outshine all the others. They have the crispy outside and soft inside of their deep fried pals, without the oozing grease. And, since they aren’t deep fried, they don’t start to get soft and soggy as they cool off. They stay nice and crunchy, even when they are totally cooled.

2. Oven-baked fries are a bit healthier than deep-fried.

How to Make Extra-Crispy French Fries

The secrets to these incredible fries include a few of things, the main one being soaking the raw potatoes before you bake them to remove some of the excess starch. Less starch = more crispiness.

When it comes to slicing, I like to cut the fries to be a little thin; but not shoestring-style and not too thick. About 1/4 inch wide. To slice the potatoes, I slice the whole potato lengthwise and then slice each piece of the potato again into fries.

After slicing, the potatoes get coated in olive oil, which helps the fries crisp up in the oven

Parchment paper is key in keeping the fries from sticking and getting the best crisp on the outside while keeping a soft inside. You could also use foil, but make sure you spray the foil with non-stick spray because you don’t want your fries to stick to the pan.

Try not to crowd the fries on the pan and make sure they have a bit of space in between each other. The less fries on the pan, the better. Too many fries shoved together and they’ll just steam – not bake. I can normally fit the fries from 3 potatoes on a 13×18-inch jelly roll pan.

Finally, the last trick up my sleeve is my double baking method. The fries are first baked in the oven at 400 degrees for 30 minutes, then baked for another 20 minutes at 425 degrees.

The second most important thing is the seasoning. Whether it be plain sea salt or our spice blend, you’ve gotta have seasoning!

The seasoning goes on the potatoes both before and after baking. If you’re feeling fancy, you could also sprinkle some grated Parmesan on the fries after baking.

The amount of potatoes you use depends on how many fries you want to make. If you’re baking for just yourself, I’d use 1 large potato. If you’re making the fries as a side dish for a family of 4+, I’d use 1 medium size potato per person depending how hungry you are.

Ingredients:

Seasoning Mix (DO NOT USE ALL OF THE SEASONING FOR ONE BATCH, READ INSTRUCTIONS):

2 Tablespoons seasoned salt

1 teaspoon chili powder

1 teaspoon dried basil

1/8 teaspoon cumin

1/8 teaspoon black pepper

For the Fries:

3 medium russet potatoes (russet are the best choice for perfect crispy fries)

1-2 Tablespoons olive oil

2 Tablespoons grated Parmesan (optional)

Directions:

Combine seasoning ingredients in a small bowl; set aside.

Wash and peel the potatoes. Cut off the ends. With a very sharp knife, cut the potatoes into thin slices about 1/4 inch wide.

Add the fries to a large bowl and cover with cold water. Allow them to soak for at least 30 minutes but they can soak for as long as overnight. (Place in the fridge if soaking more than an hour).

After the fries have soaked, drain, rinse, and lay the fries on a paper towel lined cooling rack to dry while you preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Blot the tops with additional paper towels to absorb any excess moisture.

Line a baking pan with parchment paper or foil and spray with non-stick spray. Make sure the previously used bowl is dry and add the potatoes to it, add 1-2 tablespoons of oil and 1/2 – 1 Tablespoon of the seasoning mixture based on how much salt you prefer. Toss around to mix.

Evenly line the baking pan with the fries in a single layer. Don’t overlap or they fries won’t cook properly. Bake for about 30 minutes, flipping with a spatula once or twice after 15 minutes of cooking. Increase heat to 425 degrees and continue baking until the edges look a little burnt!

Sprinkle the fries with the other half of the seasoning mix and Parmesan cheese (optional). Serve immediately.

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190 comments

How lovely, and healthier too! Thanks for your tips, and for giving me some fries I can enjoy and include in my diet while I am in my peak season…without putting a ton of extra unhealthy fats in there. Yum!

Your picture looked so good, I had to use my giant farmer’s market potato and shoved all the fries together on the sheet. Next time I will have to be more careful and maybe split onto two sheets–you are right, you cannot compromise the space between fries or else they steam!

Not terrible, I satisfied my pregnant craving for fries anyway. Glad I found your site through Pinterest!

Love the idea of double-baking to get extra crispness. I have never tried that! I will try it next time I make sweet potato fries in the oven (can’t do regular potatoes due to a nightshade intolerance).
I like to use a silicone liner/silpat to line my baking sheets when making oven-fries – no sticking and it is reusable which I like a lot….

Not only do the photos look drool-worthy, I appreciate all the wonderful tips too. Your seasoning mix sounds awesome also. SO happy to have you sharing at our Weekend Potluck party. We’d love to have you link back to the party within your post…it makes you eligible to be featured. =) Do come again soon.

Hi Julianne! You could definitely try it… I will warn you that we have done that before and we cut the fries too thick, so they were more soft than crispy. So, just make sure that you cut them very thinly, have one single layer of fries and increase the cooking time by about 20 minutes or so. When you’re finish making them all, you could reheat them in the oven! Hope that helps! 🙂

I just made these with lunch today and they were by far the crispiest fries I have ever made! YUM! I will be using this method for my fry making in the future for sure. I’m curious to see how it works with sweet potato fries.

Great technique. I have no idea what I did wrong, but I just made them and they’re way way way too salty. I only put half of the seasoning on them and yikes! The faces my kids made were priceless. LOL! I will try again soon. 🙂

You can also do baked polenta french fries very easily. First preheat your oven to 450F. Then grease a baking sheet with olive oil cooking spray. Then open up one of those tubes of cooked polenta, then cut the polenta in half crosswise then cut each half lengthwise into 8 wedges. Place the wedges on the cookie sheet and spray the wedges with more olive oil cooking spray. Then sprinkle the wedges with salt, pepper, and any other favorite herbs and spices you’d like to sprinkle on them (smoked paprika would probably be a good spice to sprinkle on them). Then bake at 450F for 45 – 50 minutes, turning once about halfway through. This is a great way to have mock french fries without all the muss and fuss of traditional french fries made from potatoes 😀

I made these fries for dinner last night and they were fantastic! My boys loved them – said they were the best fries I had ever made. I’m not a huge fan of fries, but these guys could make me change my mind. I forgot to soak the cut potatoes to remove the starch and they were still delicious. Thanks for a great recipe.

I just love french fries, but other than the frozen variety, I haven’t tried making them myself. This looks simple enough to do and healthier too without all those “how do you pronounce that” ingredients.

Could I ask about the “seasoned salt” you use. I live in Japan and about the only seasoned salt I can get may be Crazy Salt. If I used just plain salt, how much should I use for this recipe? 1 tablespoons or even less. Even that much seems a lot to me. The amount of salt we can eat in a day seems to be getting reduced every year by the nutritionists!

You can use regular salt in replace of seasoned salt. The salt in this recipe is used to create a seasoning for the fries, and only about 1 tablespoon of that seasoning is used to season a portion serving 2-4 people. Hope that helps! 🙂

Such an amazing recipe! Followed it to a T and the fries turned out amazingly. I have made these numerous time since then, such a family favorite. Thank you for a healthier version of our favorite indulgence. A MUST try.

Wow! I just came across this recipe today and cooked these babies tonight with bison burgers. Absolutely amazing! I shared this recipe on all my social networks, I was so impressed. I’ve never done that before! Thank you!

I made these for my husband the other night. I over cooked them but they were still good! I LOVE the basil, so I added more! Next time, I will cook them for 30 mins on 400 because my gas oven heats up quickly.
I have added it to my “Dinner rotation” Pinterest board. I make a side dish and a main dish once a week from that board. This is a side dish I will be making at least once a month, a staple in our home! Thanks for the great dish, Jen & Em!
~Kat

So glad i found this. Their in the oven as i type! Making fries has never made the house smell so good! This isnt just healthier but money saving. I go through oil SOOOOO fast and the fact that i only need a couple tablespoons is such a relief. I hate dumping oil.

These were perfect! I had been making my fries in the same way but baking them on a wire rack, but the results were not as good…the parchment paper is the key I think. This is my new method! Thanks so much for the great recipe! 🙂

Planning on making this Saturday for Valentine’s Day 2015 with panned fried London Broil and veggie. Hubby loves French fries but he can’t have them anymore so this should be a nice treat. Thank you for the alternative!!

These came out really good. As you stated, making sure the fries are as dry as possible after soaking and not crowding them on the baking sheet are crucial to getting them to crisp up. My favorite part was the seasoning mix, it was delicious on the fries.

Trying this today! Thanks for sharing. I like to crinkle the foil then spread it back out over the pan and spray with cooking spray. Crinkling the foil raises the fries off the pan and keeps them from burning and sticking.

Hi there. Found your recipe after a quick Pinterest search. We were making beer-battered cod from Sam’s Club and needed some “chips” to go with our fish! 🙂 I’m so glad I made this recipe…honestly, the best homemade fries I’ve ever had. (not to toot my own horn…more tooting your horn!)

-You were right about spacing the fries: I used 3 medium potatoes and split them amongst 2 cookie sheets covered in foil with spray. The sheet with fewer fries crisped up quicker and overall were crispier than the one with more fries.
-You are also spot on with the timing of the seasoning. I seasoned before (1 tbsp; 1 tbsp of oil); during (right after I flipped halfway thru); and after. The flavor was great. I could have used even more (I think it just depends on how much seasoning a person prefers).

Here’s what I did –
I followed the recipe to a “T” except for 2 things:
1) On one of the sheets of fries, I sprinkled garlic salt (in addition to your salt mix) over them before putting into the oven. DELICIOUS. I’m a huge garlic fan, it gave them a little crunch, too.
2) I followed the oven temperature (400* at 30 minutes) for the first “roast,” then because I had to bake the cod at 450* for 20 minutes, just decided that the fries would be in there too, at 450*, for 20 more minutes. DELICIOUS.

I never comment on recipes (usually because I don’t like using my email address) but I had to comment here. Excellent recipe: thank you so much for sharing!

Just wanted to tell you that I have used this recipe for two years and have memorized it because I use it so often! It is amazing!!!! Most of the time we eat all of the fries before dinner, so we make another batch! Thanks for the recipe!!!!!

These look awesome! I love French fries, but don’t eat fast food, and try not to eat fatty foods, period. I am totally trying these tonight. How long do i need to soak the potatoes for? Would you soak sweet potatoes as well? Thanks!! 🙂

Going to try out this recipe tomorrow night! Quick question first, have you ever tried to make garlic fries with using this recipe? I was originally trying to find a recipe specifically for garlic fries but I came across yours first!

This was amazing I baked it for 20 minutes at 400 degrees Fahrenheit and baked it for about 10 minutes at 425 degrees Fahrenheit. This was so simple that I, a novice cook could make it. It was very crispy and all my family members thoroughly enjoyed it. I added some paprika, black ground pepper, salt, seasoned salt, and onion powder, and it was AMAZINGLY.

So happy I clicked on your site. I was looking for timing for baking fresh french fries. These are amazing and by the way we are having a big blue cheese burger with them! Thanks for your recipes, I already know I will be back to make those beautiful oven roasted parmesan potatoes!

I made them tonight! I used two potatoes & too much (1 & 1/2 tbs) of seasoning which was way to salty for me…I only baked them 30 mins. & they came out golden, crispy on the outside & chewy on the inside. They were good besides the salt. I will definitely make again & again! Thanks for sharing the recipe.

These are amazing!!! I made them for dinner 4 nights ago and they were so delicious I’ve made them for lunch the last 3 days! They are perfectly crispy and the seasoning is such a great combo! I’ve always liked seasoned salt, but never would have thought to make some additions. Can’t wait to try some more of your recipes!